Supporting multiple access technologies in a wireless environment

ABSTRACT

Support for multiple wireless access technologies at a common terrestrial radio access network is described herein. By way of example, wireless resources can be reserved in a manner that facilitates transmission of control and reference signals to advanced or emerging-technology user terminals (e.g., LTE-A), while mitigating adverse affects on legacy user terminals (e.g., LTE Release 8). As such, information designated for LTE-A terminals can be embedded in predetermined reserved locations, which exploit known standardized behavior of legacy terminals in expecting information at specific locations. Such reserving of resources can occur typically without the legacy terminals being affected, mitigating or avoiding performance degradation for legacy terminals.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY UNDER 35 U.S.C. §119

The present Application for Patent claims priority to U.S. ProvisionalApplication No. 61/092,456 entitled RESERVING RESOURCES FOR TRANSMITTALOF LTE-A RELATED INFORMATION filed Aug. 28, 2008, assigned to theassignee hereof and expressly incorporated by reference herein.

BACKGROUND

I. Field

The following relates generally to wireless communication, and morespecifically to facilitating multiple wireless access technologies overa common terrestrial radio access network.

II. Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide varioustypes of communication, for example, voice, data, and so on can beprovided by such wireless communication systems. A typical wirelesscommunication system, or network, can provide multiple users access toone or more shared resources (e.g., bandwidth, transmit power, . . . ).For example, a system can use a variety of multiple access techniquessuch as Frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM), Time DivisionMultiplexing (TDM), Code Division Multiplexing (CDM), OrthogonalFrequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM), and others.

Generally, a wireless multiple-access communication system cansimultaneously support communication for multiple access terminals. Eachaccess terminal can communicate with one or more base stations throughtransmissions on the forward and reverse links. The forward link (ordownlink) refers to the communication link from the base stations to theaccess terminals, and the reverse link (or uplink) refers to thecommunication link from the access terminals to the base stations. Thiscommunication link may be established through a single-in-single-out,multiple-in-single-out, or a multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) system.

Wireless communication systems sometimes employ one or more basestations, each base station providing a coverage area. A typical basestation can transmit multiple data streams for broadcast, multicast,and/or unicast services, wherein a data stream may be a stream of datathat can be of independent reception interest to an access terminal. Anaccess terminal within the coverage area of such base station can beemployed to receive one, more than one, or all the data streams carriedby a composite stream. Likewise, an access terminal can transmit data tothe base station or another access terminal.

Several advancements are currently considered for Long Term Evolution(LTE) advanced system like Multi User MIMO, higher order MIMO (with 8transmit and receive antennas), Network MIMO, Femto cells withRestricted Association, Pico cells with range extension, largerbandwidths, and the like. LTE advanced has to support legacy UEs (e.g.,LTE release 8 UEs) while providing additional features to new UEs (andlegacy UEs when possible). However, supporting all features in LTE canput several constraints on LTE advanced design, limiting potential gainsand affecting user experience.

SUMMARY

The following presents a simplified summary of one or more embodimentsin order to provide a basic understanding of such embodiments. Thissummary is not an extensive overview of all contemplated embodiments,and is intended to neither identify key or critical elements of allembodiments nor delineate the scope of any or all embodiments. Its solepurpose is to present some concepts of one or more embodiments in asimplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that ispresented later.

In accordance with one or more embodiments and corresponding disclosurethereof, various aspects are described in connection with reservingfrequency-time block wireless resources for conveying information to newuser terminals (e.g., configured for or compatible with an emergingaccess technology such as LTE-A), while mitigating adverse affects onlegacy user terminals (e.g., compatible with existing accesstechnologies such as LTE). Information designated for emerging accesstechnology terminals can be embedded in predetermined reservedlocations, such as: a subset of PHICH resource groups; a predeterminednumber of control channel elements; a subset of resource elements orresource element groups in the control segment; some resources in PDSCHregion; one or more resources in MBSFN subframes; a subset of resourcesin special subframes of frame structure type 2 in a time division duplex(TDD) wireless system, and/or a combination thereof.

In one aspect, the reserved time-frequency resource(s) can be employedfor transmitting LTE-A signals, such as control signals, or referencesignals (e.g. for additional antenna ports for high order MIMO ornetwork MIMO applications). According to a related methodology,initially a determination is made as to the resources that are to bereserved for transmittal of information to LTE-A capable user terminals(e.g., user terminals configured for LTE or LTE-A access technologies).Such decision can be based on factors such as: number of LTE-A userterminals; amount of control information required to be transmitted toLTE-A user terminals; control resources to be used, and the like. Next,such resources can be reserved and required information subsequentlytransmitted to new user terminals.

According to particular aspects, resources reserved for LTE-A userterminals can be selected to not conflict with LTE control or datatraffic. LTE user terminals will ignore the LTE-A control or referencesignals in this instance, as traffic intended for other terminals. WhereLTE-A resources do conflict with LTE resources, a mitigation procedurecan be employed to reduce performance loss to LTE resources. Suitablemitigation procedures can comprise modifying duty cycle of LTE-Aresources, modifying signal power or rate control of respective LTE orLTE-A signal transmissions, modified resource scheduling, and so on, orcombinations thereof. Accordingly, even where LTE-A resource assignmentspuncture LTE resources, associated performance loss to legacy userterminals can be mitigated or avoided.

Another aspect of the subject disclosure relates to a method foraggregating wireless access technologies in a wireless network. Themethod can comprise employing a data interface to obtain a wirelessresource schedule for wireless resources of a wireless network andemploying a data processor to analyze the wireless resource schedule andidentify wireless signal resources employed by a baseline wirelessaccess technology. Moreover, the method can comprise employing the dataprocessor to reserve a subset of the wireless resources of the wirelessnetwork for control or reference signals of a second wireless accesstechnology and employing a wireless transmitter to send a resourcescheduling for the control or reference signals to access terminalsconfigured for the second wireless access technology.

In other aspects, the subject disclosure relates to an apparatus foraggregating wireless access technologies. The apparatus can comprisememory for storing a set of modules configured to provide wirelessaccess to access terminals configured for a legacy wireless accesstechnology and access terminals configured for an advanced wirelessaccess technology. Moreover, the apparatus can comprise a data processorfor executing the set of modules. Specifically, the set of modules cancomprise a signal parsing module that analyzes a wireless networkresource scheduling to identify wireless resources scheduled for thelegacy wireless access technology, and a selection module that assignscontrol or reference signal (RS) resources for the advanced wirelessaccess technology according to a performance loss mitigation policy.This loss mitigation policy specifies control or RS resources that donot conflict with the resource scheduling for the legacy wireless accesstechnology, or specifies implementation of a mediation procedure forcontrol or RS resources that do conflict with the resource scheduling.

Another aspect of the subject disclosure relates to an apparatus thatfacilitates wireless communication for multiple wireless accesstechnologies. The apparatus can comprise means for employing a datainterface to obtain a wireless resource schedule for wireless resourcesof a wireless network and means for employing a data processor toidentify wireless signal resources employed by a baseline wirelessaccess technology from the wireless resource schedule. Moreover, theapparatus can comprise means for employing the data processor to reservea subset of the wireless resources of the wireless network for controlor reference signals of a second wireless access technology.Furthermore, the apparatus can comprise means for employing a wirelesstransmitter to send a resource scheduling for the control or referencesignals to access terminals configured for the second wireless accesstechnology.

Yet another aspect relates to a processor(s) configured to facilitatewireless communication for multiple wireless access technologies. Theprocessor(s) can comprise a first module that identifies wireless signalresources of a wireless network employed by a baseline wireless accesstechnology. The processor(s) can also comprise a second module thatreserves a subset of the wireless signal resources for control orreference signals of a second wireless access technology. Furthermore,the processor(s) can comprise a third module that sends a resourcescheduling for the control or reference signals to access terminalsconfigured for the second wireless access technology.

Still other aspects relate to a computer program product comprising acomputer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium can comprise afirst set of codes for causing a computer to identify wireless signalresources of a wireless network employed by a baseline wireless accesstechnology, and a second set of codes for causing the computer toreserve a subset of the wireless signal resources for control orreference signals of a second wireless access technology. Furthermore,the computer-readable medium can comprise a third set of codes forcausing the computer to send a resource scheduling for the control orreference signals to access terminals configured for the second wirelessaccess technology.

According to other aspects disclosed herein, a user terminal can beconfigured to employ multiple types of wireless access technologies wheninterfacing with a wireless base station, such as LTE and LTE-A accesstechnologies. Such a terminal can recognize existing access protocolsemployed by a baseline access technology, but also can recognizesupplemental protocols employed by an advanced access technology, wheresupported. The terminal can utilize the supplemental protocols indecoding downlink transmissions or while transmitting on uplink channelsto optimize wireless performance.

One such aspect relates to a method of wireless communication. Themethod can comprise employing a wireless receiver to receive a resourcescheduling policy directed toward a first wireless access technology andobtaining a supplemental resource scheduling policy directed toward asecond wireless access technology. Further, the method can compriseemploying a data processor to analyze the supplemental resourcescheduling policy and decode control or RS transmissions for the secondwireless access technology as specified by the supplemental resourcescheduling.

Another aspect relates to an apparatus that employs an advanced longterm evolution (LTE-A) access technology in a wireless network thatsupports a long term evolution (LTE) access technology and the LTE-Aaccess technology. The apparatus can comprise a wireless receiver thatobtains and decodes a scheduling policy for the LTE access technology.Additionally, the apparatus can comprise a memory that stores a set ofmodules configured for employing the LTE-A access technology of thewireless network and a data processor for executing the set of modules.Specifically, the set of modules includes a parsing module that extractsan LTE-A scheduling policy from a scheduling message provided by thewireless network and an analysis module that examines the LTE-Ascheduling policy and identifies resource scheduling for LTE-A trafficpertaining to the apparatus.

Yet another aspect relates to an apparatus configured for wirelesscommunication. The apparatus can comprise means for employing a wirelessreceiver to receive a resource scheduling policy directed toward a firstwireless access technology. Furthermore, the apparatus can comprisemeans for obtaining a supplemental resource scheduling policy directedtoward a second wireless access technology. Moreover, the apparatus cancomprise means for employing a data processor to analyze thesupplemental resource scheduling policy and decode control or RStransmissions for the second wireless access technology as specified bythe supplemental resource scheduling.

Another aspect of the subject disclosure relates to at least oneprocessor configured for wireless communication. The processor(s) cancomprise a first module that receives a resource scheduling policydirected toward a first wireless access technology and a second modulethat obtains a supplemental resource scheduling policy directed toward asecond wireless access technology. The processor(s) can also comprise athird module that analyzes the supplemental resource scheduling policyand decodes control or RS transmissions for the second wireless accesstechnology as specified by the supplemental resource scheduling.

Still other aspects relate to a computer program product comprising acomputer-readable medium. The computer-readable medium can include afirst set of codes for causing a computer to receive a resourcescheduling policy directed toward a first wireless access technology. Inaddition, the computer-readable medium can include a second set of codesfor causing the computer to obtain a supplemental resource schedulingpolicy directed toward a second wireless access technology. Moreover,the computer-readable medium can include a third set of codes forcausing the computer to analyze the supplemental resource schedulingpolicy and decode control or RS transmissions for the second wirelessaccess technology as specified by the supplemental resource scheduling.

To the accomplishment of the foregoing and related ends, the one or moreaspects comprise features hereinafter fully described and particularlypointed out in the claims. The following description and the annexeddrawings set forth herein detail certain illustrative aspects of the oneor more embodiments. These aspects are indicative, however, of but a fewof the various ways in which the principles of various embodiments canbe employed and the described embodiments are intended to include allsuch aspects and their equivalents.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an example apparatus that supportsmultiple wireless access technologies for a network base station.

FIG. 2 depicts one example time-frequency resource scheduling permittingmultiple wireless access technologies according to one aspect.

FIG. 3 illustrates a sample time-frequency resource schedulingpermitting multiple wireless access technologies according to a furtheraspect.

FIG. 4 depicts an example time-frequency resource scheduling enablingmultiple wireless access technologies according to yet another aspect.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of a sample system that providesdynamic and adaptive resource scheduling for multiple accesstechnologies.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example system comprising abase station configured to support multiple wireless accesstechnologies.

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of a sample system comprising a userterminal (UT) that can employ multiple access technologies in wirelesscommunication.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of an example methodology for supportingmultiple access technologies in a wireless communication environment.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a sample methodology for providingadaptive resource scheduling in supporting LTE and LTE-A terminals.

FIG. 10 depicts a flowchart of an example methodology for employing anadvanced wireless access technology in an environment supporting legacyterminals.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate block diagrams of example systems forproviding and facilitating, respectively, multiple wireless accesstechnologies.

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of an example wireless transmit-receivechain facilitating wireless communication according to particularaspects.

FIG. 14 illustrates a block diagram of a sample cellular communicationenvironment that can be employed in support of various other disclosedaspects.

FIG. 15 depicts a block diagram of an example wireless communicationenvironment according to at least one other disclosed aspect.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various aspects are now described with reference to the drawings,wherein like reference numerals are used to refer to like elementsthroughout. In the following description, for purposes of explanation,numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of one or more aspects. It can be evident, however, thatsuch aspect(s) can be practiced without these specific details. In otherinstances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagramform in order to facilitate describing one or more aspects.

In addition, it should be apparent that the teaching herein can beembodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structureand/or function disclosed herein is merely representative. Based on theteachings herein one skilled in the art should appreciate that an aspectdisclosed herein can be implemented independently of any other aspectsand that two or more of these aspects can be combined in various ways.For example, an apparatus can be implemented and/or a method practicedusing any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, anapparatus can be implemented and/or a method practiced using otherstructure and/or functionality in addition to or other than one or moreof the aspects set forth herein. As an example, many of the methods,devices, systems and apparatuses described herein are described in thecontext of supporting user terminals configured for different wirelessaccess technologies in a common wireless communication environment. Oneskilled in the art should appreciate that similar techniques could applyto other communication environments.

Advances in wireless communication technology have been diverse inrecent years. Some advances affect handset terminals, enabling greaterprocessing power and memory, more powerful and diverse applications,multiple antennas or antenna types, and so on. Other advances affectaccess network technology, providing higher bandwidth communication,more reliable data rates, multi-user support, and so on. Regardless ofthe type or nature of these advancements, new software and communicationprotocols are often necessary to take advantage of additionalcapabilities. For instance, if a base station is installed with multiplephysical antennas, and improved signal processing allows for lowerinterference and diversity transmission/reception, multiple-inputmultiple-output (MIMO) technology can be employed to achieve greatlyimproved data rates. However, new software might be needed to implementthe MIMO technology; for instance, to allocate time-frequency resourcesto MIMO-capable user terminals (UTs). In addition, the software maydistinguish between a MIMO-capable UT and a legacy (non-MIMO) UT, tocontinue to support legacy UTs in a MIMO-capable wireless environment.

In general, reserving resources can occur without legacy terminals beingaffected by the reserved locations, and hence their associatedperformances are typically not hampered. Put differently, in at leastone aspect the subject innovation exploits behavior of legacy userterminals in expecting information at specific locations of a collectionof OFDM symbols. Thus, information can be supplied to other userterminals at different resource locations—enabling implementation of newstandards or protocols on these different resource locations, whilemitigating performance degradation for legacy terminals. Hence, awireless communication apparatus as described herein can accommodatemultiple wireless access technologies concurrently.

As one particular example of the foregoing, consider a case where legacyterminals are configured for a third generation partnership project(3GPP) long term evolution (LTE) access technology (or LTE accesstechnology), and new terminals are configured for an advanced LTE (orLTE-A) access technology. In this case, LTE-A UTs can be informed ofcontrol, reference signal (RS) or traffic resources reserved for LTE-AUTs through a plurality of mechanisms, such as transmission of a newSIB; through a new common channel (e.g., a BCH) that can be monitored byLTE-A terminals, and so on. Alternatively, or in addition, specificLTE-A UTs or a group of such LTE-A UTs can be informed of the reservedresources by a unicast transmission.

According to particular aspects, the pattern employed for reservedresources can be different across frequency time blocks, or can beadaptive and change over time. Such pattern can be changed based on thenumber of LTE-A and legacy UTs in the system, as well as their demands.Also, the pattern may be designed based on different criteria deemedimportant for particular signals being carried on the resources.

Referring now to the drawings, FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of anexample system 100 that facilitates multiple wireless accesstechnologies for a common wireless network (e.g., a terrestrial radioaccess network). System 100 can facilitate wireless communicationsaccording to different access technologies, depending on capabilities ofaccess terminals served by the system (100). As an example, system 100can be employed to implement a baseline wireless access technology for aset of legacy access terminals configured for the baseline wirelessaccess technology, and implement an advanced wireless access technologyfor a second set of access terminals configured for the advancedwireless access technology. As a specific example, system 100 canprovide LTE services to a set of LTE terminals and reserve resources forLTE-A communication for LTE-A terminals. Typically, LTE-A and LTE accessterminologies do not mix in a single radio access network, since LTE-Aspecifies higher bandwidth, data rates, antenna diversity, etc., thanLTE. Also, resource provisioning for LTE-A can be incompatible withresource provisioning for LTE. System 100 can alleviate many of theseproblems and enable LTE and LTE-A activity on a single radio accessnetwork, as described in more detail below.

System 100 comprises a resource scheduling apparatus 102 coupled with abase station 104. In some aspects, resource scheduling apparatus 102 andbase station 104 are a single physical entity. For instance, resourcescheduling apparatus 102 can be installed as a hardware or softwarecomponent of base station 104. In other aspects, resource schedulingapparatus 102 can be located physically remote from base station 104,and can optionally be located at a central server and operate forseveral base stations (104) (e.g., as part of system controller 1430,see FIG. 14 infra).

Resource scheduling apparatus 102 comprises memory 112 for storing a setof modules 108, 110 configured to provide wireless access to accessterminals (ATs) configured for a legacy wireless access technology (e.g.LTE) and ATs configured for an advanced wireless access technology(e.g., LTE-A). Additionally, resource scheduling apparatus 106 cancomprise a data processor for executing the set of modules 108, 110. Asignal parsing module 108 analyzes resource scheduling for the legacywireless access technology. Thus, the signal parsing module 108 can beconfigured to identify a mapping for location or orientation of resourceblocks within a wireless signal frame, mapping of orthogonal frequencydivision multiplex (OFDM) symbols to various control channels, referencechannels, or traffic channels, and the like. Additionally, signalparsing module 108 can identify blank resources, which are not employedfor legacy wireless access signaling. The mapping(s) can be output intoa resource schedule file 108A for the legacy access technology, andprovided to a resource selection module 110.

Resource selection module 110 assigns control or RS resources for theadvanced wireless access technology. The assignment is typically doneaccording to a performance loss mitigation policy 112A. Generally, thepolicy 112A is configured to avoid resource conflicts for the legacyaccess technology and the advanced access technology. Where resourceconflicts are not fully avoided, the policy 112A can stipulate amediation procedure 112B to mitigate performance loss resulting from theconflict. As utilized herein, the term resource conflict can includedirect conflicts, where a single resource or resource group is assignedto multiple access technologies concurrently (e.g., a single channelassigned for an LTE function and an LTE-A function), or indirectconflicts, where a resource assignment for one access technology limitsfull applicability of resources expected by access terminals employing adifferent access technology. As an example of the latter, also referredto as resource puncturing, reserving a shared channel resource group(RGs) for LTE-A terminals may inhibit maximum data rates for LTEterminals employing shared channel resources, even if the shared channelRG is not currently allocated to LTE signaling.

Various groups of resources can be assigned or reserved for the advancedwireless access technology. Selection of resources depends at least inpart on the resource schedule 108A employed for the legacy wirelessaccess technology. For instance, it can be preferred for mitigationpolicy 112A to reserve a subset of resource blocks (e.g. comprising agroup of frequency sub-bands over a group of OFDM symbols in a singlesignal subframe—e.g., see FIGS. 2-4, infra) for the advanced accesstechnology, that will then not be employed by ATs of the legacy accesstechnology. Within those reserved resource blocks, subsets oftime-frequency resources can be allocated to control signals, RSs, ordata traffic for the advanced access technology. In this manner, aresource conflict between the legacy and advanced wireless accesstechnologies is unlikely. In other aspects, resource blocks employed bythe legacy access technology can be designated as multi-use blocks, andsome time-frequency resources of these multi-use blocks allocated toadvanced access technology ATs. In this latter case, an indirectresource conflict (or direct resource conflict) is more likely to occur.Accordingly, mitigation policy 112A can stipulate the mediationprocedure 112B for this type of resource assignment.

The following discussion describes particular examples for resourceselection and reservation according to various exemplary aspects.Time-frequency resources assigned for advanced access technology use canbe in a control region or data region of one or more subframes of awireless signal. In some aspects, the reserved time-frequency resourcesare in resource blocks assigned for the advanced access technology, butthis is not necessary in all cases. For instance, the reserved resourcescan be assigned to general-purpose resource blocks (usable by any ATserved by base station 104), or to control channel resources that arenot reserved for any particular AT or type of AT.

In one aspect of the subject disclosure, resource selection module 110can reserve a subset of physical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)indicator channel (PHICH) resources of base station 104 as wirelessresources for advanced access technology ATs. PHICH resources are usedto send HARQ acknowledgments corresponding to uplink transmissions ofATs. In this aspect, potential performance impact on legacy ATs canoccur. The mediation procedure 112B can be employed to offset thisperformance impact. In one aspect, the mediation procedure 112B can beemployed for scheduling extra PHICH resource groups in addition to PHICHresource groups utilized by the legacy wireless access technology (andpossibly the advanced wireless access technology) for Acknowledgementsand employing the extra PHICH resource groups for control or RSresources of the advanced wireless access technology. In other words,one possible mediation procedure (112B) is to schedule a total number ofPHICH resource groups greater than what is required to supportAcknowledgements for both the advanced and legacy wireless accesstechnology.

In an alternative aspect, the mediation procedure 112B can be employedfor scheduling AT uplink transmissions in a manner that avoids PHICHconflicts between the legacy and advanced wireless access technologies.Typically, uplink transmissions are mapped to particular PHICH resourcesfor receiving feedback pertaining to those uplink transmissions. Thus,as an example, consider an uplink resource for data transmission,resource A, mapped to a downlink resource for PHICH signaling, resourceB. An AT assigned on an uplink to resource A will monitor resource B ona downlink. Conversely, upon receiving data from the AT on uplinkresource A, base station 104 will transmit PHICH signals to the AT ondownlink resource B. However, it should be appreciated that in amulti-access technology system such as system 100, assigning PHICHgroups to the advanced wireless access technology can reduce performancefor ATs configured for the legacy wireless access technology. Forinstance, reducing a number of PHICH groups available for legacy ATs canresult in an indirect resource conflict, or resource puncturing. Thistype of conflict can lead to performance degradation for ATs utilizingPHICH groups for acknowledgments.

To alleviate this problem, the mediation policy 112B can incorporate amapping of uplink transmissions to PHICH resources to mitigate impact ofconflicts between PHICH groups employed by the legacy wireless accesstechnology (e.g., for acknowledgments) and PHICH reserved for theadvanced wireless access technology. That is to say, PHICH groups mappedto uplink resources employed by legacy ATs (ATs configured for thelegacy wireless access technology) will be less likely to conflict withPHICH groups reserved for the advanced wireless access technology, orPHICH groups employed by advanced ATs (ATs configured for the advancedwireless access technology). As a result, legacy ATs served by basestation 104 transmit on uplink resources that are mapped to PHICH groupsother than the PHICH resource groups reserved for the advanced wirelessaccess technology. This is possible, for example in LTE, since the PHICHgroup utilized by an LTE AT is dependent on the uplink resourcescheduled to the AT, as described above, and on other AT specificparameters that can be configured by base station 104. In this latteraspect, collision between PHICH groups monitored by the legacy ATs foracknowledgements and PHICH groups reserved for the advanced wirelessaccess technology (for acknowledgments, for control signal or RStransmissions, for data transmissions, and so on) can be mitigated oravoided by mediation policy 112B. Thus, in at least one aspect of thesubject disclosure, the mediation procedure comprises mapping accessterminals configured for the legacy wireless access technology to uplinkresources that correspond to a set of PHICH groups other than the PHICHresource groups reserved for the advanced wireless access technology.

According to another aspect of the subject disclosure, resourceselection module 110 can assign a subset of control channel elements(CCEs) employed by a wireless network (and base station 104) to controlor RS signals of an advanced wireless access technology. In at least oneaspect, resource selection module 110 can ensure that these resourcesare not employed for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH)transmissions of the legacy wireless access technology (at least as longas the resources are reserved for the advanced wireless accesstechnology, for instance). To illustrate CCE and PDCCH usage, consideran LTE system. In LTE, CCEs are a collection of nine resource elementgroups (REGs) in a control region of a wireless subframe (e.g., see thecontrol resources of FIG. 2, infra). PDCCH signals are transmitted on anaggregate of 1, 2, 4 or 8 CCEs. In each subframe, the CCEs can beordered as specified in LTE standards (e.g., LTE release 8) and a PDCCHcan be assigned to 1, 2, 4 or 8 contiguous CCEs with this ordering.

Based on the foregoing structure, the resource selection module 110 canchoose the first CCE to be used for PDCCH of a legacy AT and anaggregation size (e.g., 1, 2, 4 or 8 CCEs), and avoid conflicts with CCEgroups reserved for the advanced wireless access technology. In thismanner, base station 104 can continue to serve PDCCH for legacy ATs,while providing some CCE resources for the advanced wireless accesstechnology. Thus, in the context of an LTE system, a subset of the CCEscan be reserved for LTE-A, and remaining CCEs can be employed for PDCCHsignals for ATs configured for LTE release 8, or some other version ofLTE. CCEs reserved for LTE-A would appear to the LTE Rel 8 ATs as PDCCHresources assigned to other ATs (e.g., other LTE Rel 8 ATs). Hence, theLTE Rel 8 ATs are not impacted by this reservation of CCEs for LTE-A. Itshould be appreciated that this example can be applied to othercombinations of legacy and advanced wireless access technologiescombined in a terrestrial radio access network.

Though resource selection module 110 can attempt to avoid conflicts onCCE transmissions as discussed above, performance loss might stillresult, for instance during peak traffic or high loading periods. Tomitigate performance loss of ATs configured for the baseline wirelessaccess technology as a result of reserving CCEs for the advancedwireless access technology, mediation policy 112B can be employed. Inthis case, mediation policy 112B can specify at least one of: modifyingPDCCH signal power for ATs configured for the baseline wireless accesstechnology, modifying a number of REs assigned for transmission of PDCCHfor these terminals, or optimizing a PDCCH to CCE mapping for theseaccess terminals. In the latter case, the mediation policy 112B couldspecify an organization of CCEs used for transmission of PDCCH to thelegacy ATs in a manner that optimizes performance (or avoids collisionwith CCEs reserved for advanced wireless technology).

In yet another aspect, resource selection module 110 can assign controlsegment resource elements (REs) that are not employed by the legacywireless access technology for RS, PHICH or physical control formatindicator channel (PCFICH) transmissions, for advanced wireless accesstechnology signals. In other words, REs that are part of CCEs can bereserved for the advanced wireless access technology signals.Furthermore, control symbol REs that are not part of CCEs and notemployed for PHICH, PCFICH or RS transmission can be employed for thispurpose as well.

If PDCCH signals are mapped to CCEs that contain some reserved REs, thereserved REs can puncture a PDCCH employed by base station 104(resulting in an indirect resource conflict). ATs configured for theadvanced wireless access technology can be configured to identify thistype of PDCCH conflict and decode PDCCH to compensate for this conflict.Legacy ATs might not be configured to identify this PDCCH conflict, andmay observe performance loss. In such case, mediation procedure 112B caninstruct base station 104 to adjust power control for the legacy ATs tocompensate for this performance loss. Alternatively, or in addition,mediation procedure 112B can instruct base station 104 to optimize PDCCHto CCE mapping to minimize the performance loss. Alternatively, or inaddition, mediation procedure 112B can instruct base station 104 toincrease a PDCCH aggregation size to improve the PDCCH performance ordecrease the PDCCH aggregation size to avoid conflict with reserved REs

In still other aspects, resource selection module 110 can assignphysical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) resources for the advancedwireless access technology ATs. As one example, resource selectionmodule 110 assigns control or RS resources to PDSCH REs that could atleast partially conflict with data assignments for the legacy wirelessaccess technology. Similar to the control segment REs, discussed above,advanced access technology ATs can identify the conflict and decode thePDSCH in a manner that mitigates performance loss. For legacy ATs notconfigured to identify the conflict, mediation procedure 112B caninstruct base station 104 to avoid scheduling ATs in parts of afrequency band in which reserved REs exist. Additionally, mediationprocedure 112B can instruct base station 104 to employ power and ratecontrol to compensate for the conflict, or resource scheduling suitableto minimize impact of the conflict.

As an alternative example, resource selection module 110 assigns thecontrol or RS resources to PDSCH REs reserved for the advanced wirelessaccess technology. In this case, these PDSCH REs can be utilized atleast in part for data transmissions of ATs configured for the advancedwireless access technology, as well as control signals or RSs. Reservingthe PDSCH REs for the advanced wireless access technology can affectlegacy ATs. In this case, mediation procedure 112B can specify a reducedduty cycle for reserving resources for advanced wireless accesstechnology purposes to offset effects on the legacy ATs.

According to at least one additional aspect, resource selection module110 can assign advanced access technology control or RS resources tonon-control symbols of one or more multicast/broadcast single frequencynetwork (MBSFN) subframes of a wireless signal. In LTE, for instance,MBSFN subframes include one or two control symbols, while remainingsymbols of these subframes are not assigned a mandated transmission.Legacy ATs typically monitor only the control symbols on MBSFNsubframes. It is possible, therefore, to reserve non-control OFDMsymbols of MBSFN subframes for advanced access technology ATs withoutimpacting legacy ATs.

In yet another aspect, resource selection module 110 can identify othernon-reserved wireless resources specified by resource schedule 108A, andemploy these non-reserved wireless resources for the advanced accesstechnology ATs. For instance, a time division duplex (TDD) systemcomprises special subframes having frame structure type 2. The framestructure type 2 specifies a guard period (GP) field, as well as adownlink part of the special subframe (DwPTS). In one example, resourceselection module 110 can configure legacy ATs and advanced accesstechnology ATs with different special subframe resource assignments. Asanother example, resource selection module 110 can specify a larger GPfield for legacy ATs than for advanced access technology ATs. Since ATsgenerally ignore the GP field, the enlarged part of the GP field can beemployed for advanced access technology signaling with little or noimpact to legacy AT performance. Additionally, the advanced accesstechnology ATs can be informed of the change in GP by broadcast of a newsystem information block (SIB) configured for advanced wireless accesstechnology information, ignored by legacy ATs. Thus, resource selectionmodule 110 can assign control or RS resources (or traffic resources) tospecial downlink or GP field symbols ignored by ATs configured for thelegacy wireless access technology in a TDD wireless system, or similarignored symbols in other systems.

It should be appreciated that the various REs, CCEs, channels, controlsymbols and subframes that can be utilized for reserving wirelessresources for the advanced wireless access technology is not exhaustive.Rather, other resources can be employed that are not expresslyarticulated herein. In addition, combinations of such resources can alsobe employed consistent with the scope of the subject disclosure.Additionally, time-varying patterns of resource reservation can beemployed by resource scheduling apparatus 102, as is discussed in moredetail infra. For instance, a set of resources (e.g. subset of CCEs) canbe reserved for advanced wireless access technology transmission every Nsubframes, where N is an integer. As another example, the frequencylocation of reserved resources can be cycled through different frequencysubbands (e.g., where a subband corresponds to a set of contiguousresource blocks [RBs]) within subframes that contain reserved resources.For instance, it is possible to index different RBs with odd and evenindices, and reserve odd index resource blocks (RBs) in one subframe foradvanced wireless access technology transmissions and even index RBs ina subsequent subframe (e.g. see FIG. 2, infra). As another example,reserved resources could be cycled through different subbands overdifferent subframes. In yet another example, distributed virtualresource block mapping can be employed in a subframe used fortransmission of advanced access technology signals. This example enablesgood frequency sampling (while minimizing overhead) useful fortransmission of RS symbols for different antenna ports. This latterexample can also provide good frequency diversity for transmission ofcontrol signals.

FIG. 2 depicts an example time-frequency resource scheduling 200permitting multiple wireless access technologies according to oneaspect. Resource scheduling 200 illustrates a segment of a wirelesssignal divided in time horizontally, and divided in frequencyvertically. Each time-frequency division is a single wireless resource.In addition, blocks of contiguous time and frequency divisions arereferred to as subframes (202A, 202B) and RBs (204A, 204B, 204C),respectively.

Specifically, resource scheduling 200 comprises two time subframes 202Aand 202B. Each subframe 202A, 202B comprises fourteen OFDM symbols, thefirst three being control symbol resources (white blocks) and theremaining eleven being resources that can be employed for control,reference or traffic transmissions (dotted or shaded blocks).Additionally, each subframe 202A, 202B includes three RBs 204A, 204B,204C each comprising twelve contiguous frequency tones. Furthermore, theRBs 204A, 204B, 204C are indexed as follows: RB 204A has index of one,RB 204B has index of two, RB 204C has index of three.

In one aspect of the subject disclosure, subframes 202A, 202B can bededicated for PDSCH signals, and referred to as PDSCH subframes 202A,202B. Also as depicted, in the first PDSCH subframe 202A, odd index RBs204A and 204C are reserved for transmission of advanced wireless accesstechnology signals (e.g. LTE-A signals—depicted by the dark shading),whereas even index RB 204B is available for transmission of signals forATs employing any type of access technology (e.g., LTE, orLTE-A—depicted by the light shading). In even subframe 202B, an oppositepattern is observed, where odd numbered RBs 204A, 204C are available forany AT, whereas even numbered RB 204B is reserved for advanced wirelessaccess technology ATs.

Additionally, four time-frequency resources reserved for advancedwireless access technology signaling (e.g., odd RBs 204A, 204B insubframe 202A, and even RB 204B in subframe 202B) can be selectedspecifically for reference signals (RSs). These RS resources aredepicted with an ‘X’ inside of the respective time-frequency resource.As illustrated by resource scheduling 200, equivalently locatedresources (in the last non-control OFDM symbol) are selected for RStransmissions in both odd index RBs 204A, 204B. However, resources inthe even RB 204B of subframe 202B are located in a different position(in the first non-control OFDM symbol). This selection of RS resourcesis exemplary only, however; other RS resource patterns can be employed,and different numbers of resources can be selected for RS transmissions.However, this selection of RS transmissions enables the RS for advancedwireless access technology signals to span the entire frequency range(all three RBs 204A, 204B, 204C), while enabling legacy wireless accesstechnology transmissions to be scheduled on all subframes without adirect conflict with advanced access technology RS signals.

FIG. 3 illustrates another example resource scheduling 300 permittingmultiple wireless access technologies in a wireless access network.Resource scheduling 300 comprises a different segmentation oftime-frequency resources as compared with resource scheduling 200 ofFIG. 2, supra. Specifically, resource scheduling 300 depicts a singletime subframe 302A with fourteen OFDM symbols and four frequency RBs304A, 304B, 304C, 304D comprising twelve contiguous frequency toneseach. Furthermore, time subframe 302A is divided into three groups ofOFDM symbols, control resources in the first three OFDM symbols (whiteblocks), and two groups of general-purpose resources, of four and sevenOFDM symbols, respectively (shaded blocks, both light and dark). Inaddition, resource scheduling 300 extends across a larger frequencyband, comprising four RBs of twelve frequency tones each.

The non-control symbols of resource scheduling 300 are indexed one tofour, from top to bottom along the RBs. Specifically, RB 204A has indexone, RB 204B has index two, RB 204C has index three, and RB 204D hasindex four. Additionally, odd index RBs of the first group (comprisingfour non-control OFDM symbols) are reserved for advanced wireless accesstechnology ATs, whereas even index RBs of the second group (comprisingseven non-control OFDM symbols) are reserved for the advanced wirelessaccess technology ATs. In each RB reserved for these ATs, a set oftime-frequency symbols are also reserved for RS transmissions. Note thatthese RS resources are in contiguous OFDM symbols (the seventh andeighth symbols), although they can be in non-contiguous OFDM symbols aswell. As in FIG. 2, the advanced access technology RS resources ofresource scheduling 300 span the entire frequency range of the wirelesssignal. When scheduled in frequency hopping mode, the legacy ATs occupyodd (or even) RBs in a first half of subframe 302A and even (or odd) RBson the second half of subframe 302A. Therefore, legacy ATs can bescheduled in frequency hopping mode in subframe 302A without beingpunctured by these RS resources. In other words, resources for thelegacy ATs can span the entire frequency range as well. This enablesoptimal performance, and typically allows for little or no performanceloss for the legacy ATs.

FIG. 4 illustrates yet another example resource scheduling 400permitting multiple wireless access technologies according to anotheraspect. Resource scheduling 400 depicts a single time subframe 402Acomprising three frequency RBs 404A, 404B, 404C. In this case,dark-shaded time-frequency resource blocks are reserved for transmissionof advanced wireless access technology RSs (e.g., LTE-A RS), whereaslight-shaded time-frequency resource blocks are reserved fortransmission of legacy wireless access technology RSs (e.g., LTE RS).White blocks are time-frequency resources available for any AT, in thiscase.

Unlike resource scheduling 200 and 300, the advanced access technologyRS transmissions puncture PDSCH transmissions for the legacy accesstechnology, in that these RS transmissions span the entire frequencyband. Non-legacy ATs can be configured to identify this condition, anddecode data transmissions accordingly, to mitigate performance loss.However, legacy ATs are typically not configured to identify thiscondition, and can have significant performance loss. To mitigate thisperformance loss, a mediation procedure (e.g., see FIG. 1 at 112B,supra) can be implemented. The mediation procedure can comprisemodifying (e.g., increasing) transmit power, modifying resourcescheduling or modifying rate control for legacy access technologytransmissions, modifying duty cycle for the advanced access technologyresources, or the like, or a combination thereof. For example, low ratelegacy ATs can experience smaller performance loss than high rate legacyATs due to the puncturing. A scheduler (e.g., resource selection module110, supra), in such a case, can give preference to scheduling low ratelegacy ATs on subframes with this puncturing and schedule high ratelegacy ATs on other subframes that don't see this puncturing.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram of an example system 500 thatprovides dynamic and adaptive resource scheduling according to aspectsof the subject disclosure. Specifically, system 500 can accommodatechanging wireless conditions, and adapt a resource scheduling patternbased on such conditions. Accordingly, system 500 can optimize ATperformance over time, in various and dynamic wireless conditions.

System 500 comprises a set of ATs 502A, 502B wirelessly coupled with abase station 504. The set of ATs 502A, 502B comprise an AT configuredfor a baseline wireless access technology 502B, and an AT configured fora second wireless access technology 502A. Each AT 502A, 502Bcommunicates with base station 504 via protocols configured for theaccess technology employed by the respective ATs. These protocolsinstruct the ATs 502A, 502B on what resources to employ for varioustransmission signals, such as reference, control or traffic signals.

Specifically, base station 504 can comprise a selection module 506 thatassigns resources among respective types of ATs 502A, 502B, in a similarmanner as described for resource selection module 110 of FIG. 1, supra.In at least one aspect of the subject disclosure, resource assignmentcan be based at least in part on existing wireless conditions observedat the respective ATs and reported to base station 504. These conditionscan be stored in a database 512 communicatively coupled with basestation 504, in a wireless conditions file 514B.

Based on a type of resource assignment utilized by selection module 506,performance losses can result for the baseline access technology AT502B. In one example, this performance loss could occur if selectionmodule 506 reserves RS signals for the second wireless access technologyin PDSCH subframes that span the entire frequency band utilized by basestation 504 (e.g., see resource scheduling 400, supra). Although AT 502Amight be configured to detect this type of resource assignment andmodify signal decoding to compensate, AT 502B may not have thiscapability. Thus, AT 502B might observe some performance loss, dependingon this resource scheduling. To mitigate or avoid this performance loss,base station 504 can comprise a compensation module 508. Specifically,compensation module 508 can employ power control, rate control ordynamic scheduling based on a mediation procedure to mitigate thisperformance loss, as described herein. Furthermore, compensation module508 can reference existing wireless conditions 514B (or historicwireless conditions—derived from updates over time that are stored bydatabase 512) to determine a suitable manner to apply the mediationprocedure and optimize the performance loss mitigation.

According to still other aspects of the subject disclosure, base station504 can comprise an adaptation module 510 that dynamically modifiesassignment of resources or resource patterns based on network loading orprevailing wireless conditions. For instance, adaptation module 510 canreference a schedule of reservation patterns 514C and rules 514A forimplementing different resource patterns. Example resource reservationpatterns can comprise alternating reserved resource blocks every Nsubframes (e.g., see FIG. 2, supra) or segments of a subframe (e.g. seeFIG. 3, supra), cycling through different frequency subbands of reservedRBs, or cycling reserved resources through different subframes,employing a virtual resource block mapping in a reserved subframe (e.g.,see FIG. 4, supra), or the like, or a suitable combination thereof.Rules 514A for implementing the various resource reservation patterns514C can be based on network loading conditions, such as number ofadvanced access technology ATs (502A) served by base station 504,traffic requirements of those ATs (502A), resources employed for thoseATs (502A), and so on. Alternatively, or in addition, the rules 514A canspecify a particular resource reservation pattern 514C based on thewireless conditions 514B, including channel interference reported by ATs502A, 502B, throughput or data rates, signal to noise ratio (SNR), orother measurements of wireless channel strength or quality. Based oncurrent loading or wireless conditions, adaptation module 510 can modifyor retain the resource scheduling.

Further to the above, adaptation module 510 can dynamically monitornetwork loading or wireless conditions (514B) to identify changes overtime. Once a threshold change occurs specified by rules 514A, a newresource reservation pattern can be implemented. In this manner,adaptation module 510 can provide a dynamic resource environmentoptimized for needs of existing ATs 502A, 502B, as well as forprevailing wireless conditions.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram of an example system 600 comprising awireless base station 602 configured for aspects of the subjectdisclosure. As one example, system 600 can comprise a base station 602that is configured to support AT(s) 604 employing different wirelessaccess technologies. In another example, base station 602 is configuredto provide dynamic and adaptive resource reservation to accommodatethese wireless access technologies based on changing load or wirelessconditions, as described herein.

Base station 602 (e.g., access point, . . . ) can comprise a receiver610 that obtains wireless signals from one or more of ATs 604 throughone or more receive antennas 606, and a transmitter 630 that sendscoded/modulated wireless signals provided by modulator 628 to the AT(s)604 through a transmit antenna(s) 608. Receiver 610 can obtaininformation from receive antennas 606 and can further comprise a signalrecipient (not shown) that receives uplink data transmitted by AT(s)604. Additionally, receiver 610 is operatively associated with ademodulator 612 that demodulates received information. Demodulatedsymbols are analyzed by a data processor 614. Data processor 614 iscoupled to a memory 616 that stores information related to functionsprovided or implemented by base station 602. In one instance, storedinformation can comprise preconfigured patterns for reserving subsets ofwireless resources among different wireless access technologies. Inaddition to the foregoing, memory 616 can comprise rules or protocolsfor selecting between these preconfigured patterns. Selection can bebased on network load, or current traffic requirements of AT(s) 604.

In one particular aspect, base station 602 can comprise a parsing module618 that analyzes a resource scheduling for a legacy wireless accesstechnology. Further, base station 602 can comprise a selection module620 that assigns control or RS resources for an advanced wireless accesstechnology according to a performance loss mitigation policy (notdepicted). In one aspect, this performance loss mitigation policyspecifies control or RS resources that do not conflict with the resourcescheduling for the legacy wireless access technology (e.g., based on theanalyzed resource scheduling), or specifies implementation of amediation procedure for control or reference signal resources that doconflict with the resource scheduling. The mediation procedure can beimplemented by a compensation module 624 that employs power control,rate control or dynamic scheduling to mitigate performance loss to AT(s)604 that result from the resource scheduling. In at least one particularaspect, the performance loss mitigation policy specifies an adaptiveresource assignment pattern to mitigate performance loss to legacy ATswhen resources reserved for the advanced wireless access technologypunctures resource expectations of the legacy ATs. The adaptive resourceassignment pattern can include at least one of: reserving the control orRS resources (for the advanced wireless access technology) every Nsubframes (where N is an integer), cycling reservation of the control orRS resources through different parts of a frequency band, cyclingreservation of the control or RS resources through different subbandsover different subframes, or employing distributed virtual resourceblock mapping in a subframe employed for the control or RS resources.

In another aspect, base station 602 comprises a scheduling module 622that sends a message to AT(s) 604 configured for the advanced wirelessaccess technology, specifying location of the control or RS resourcesassigned by selection module 620. In one configuration, schedulingmodule 622 broadcasts the message via a SIB dedicated for the AT(s) 604configured for the advanced wireless access technology. In anotherconfiguration, scheduling module 622 broadcasts the message via a commonchannel that is dedicated for this AT(s) 604. In an alternativeconfiguration, however, scheduling module 622 unicasts the message toone or more of the ATs 604, instead. In another alternativeconfiguration, scheduling module 622 broadcasts or unicasts the messageover resources employed by the legacy wireless access technology,instead.

According to at least one aspect, base station 602 can comprise anadaptation module 626. In one example, the adaptation module 626dynamically modifies assignment of control or RS resources provided byselection module 620 based on network loading or prevailing wirelessconditions. As one specific example, the network loading utilized forresource modification comprises a number of access terminals served bybase station 602 or an amount of control information to be transmittedto AT(s) 604. In another specific example, the wireless conditionsutilized for resource modification include channel performance estimatessubmitted by AT(s) 604 (which can include ATs configured for the legacywireless access technology or ATs configured for the advanced wirelessaccess technology). Further, adaptation module 626 can monitor thenetwork loading or wireless conditions and updates the assignment ofcontrol or RS resources based on threshold changes in these conditions.

FIG. 7 depicts a block diagram of an example system 700 comprising an AT702 configured for wireless communication according to aspects of thesubject disclosure. AT 702 can be configured to wirelessly communicatewith one or more base stations 704 (e.g. access point) of a wirelessnetwork. Based on such configuration, AT 702 can receive wirelesssignals from a base station (704) on a forward link (or downlink)channel and respond with wireless signals on a reverse link (or uplink)channel. In addition, AT 702 can comprise instructions stored in memory714 for analyzing received wireless signals, specifically, foridentifying resource conflicts in wireless resource assignments,decoding signals in a manner that mitigates performance loss due to theresource conflicts, sampling existing wireless conditions and submittinga report of sampled conditions, or the like, as described in more detailbelow.

AT 702 includes at least one antenna 706 (e.g., a wirelesstransmission/reception interface or group of such interfaces comprisingan input/output interface) that receives a signal and receiver(s) 708,which perform typical actions (e.g., filters, amplifies, down-converts,etc.) on the received signal. In general, antenna 706 and a modulator724 and transmitter 726 can be configured to send wireless data to basestation(s) 704.

Antenna 706 and receiver(s) 708 can also be coupled with a demodulator710 that can demodulate received symbols and provide such signals to adata processor(s) 712 for evaluation. It should be appreciated that dataprocessor(s) 712 can control and/or reference one or more components(706, 708, 710, 714, 716, 718, 720, 722) of AT 702. Further, dataprocessor(s) 712 can execute one or more modules, applications, engines,or the like (716, 718, 720, 722) that comprise information or controlspertinent to executing functions of the AT 702. For instance, suchfunctions can include receiving and decoding wireless signals,identifying resource assignments from such signals, analyzing conditionsof observed wireless channels, submitting channel information to basestation 704, implementing resource optimization based on suchstatistics, or the like.

Additionally, memory 714 of AT 702 is operatively coupled to dataprocessor(s) 712. Memory 714 can store data to be transmitted, received,and the like, and instructions suitable to conduct wirelesscommunication with a remote device (804). Specifically, the instructionscan be utilized to implement the various functions described above, orelsewhere herein. Further, memory 714 can store the modules,applications, engines, etc. (716, 718, 720, 722) executed by dataprocessor(s) 712, above.

According to one example operation of AT 702, wireless receiver 708obtains a scheduling policy for an LTE access technology, anddemodulator 710 decodes the scheduling policy for data processor 712.Additionally, data processor 712 can execute a set of modules (716, 718,720, 722) configured for employing LTE-A access technology inconjunction with the LTE technology. Specifically, a parsing module 716is executed and extracts an LTE-A scheduling policy from a schedulingmessage provided by base station 704. Furthermore, an analysis module718 is executed and examines the LTE-A scheduling policy. Additionally,analysis module 718 identifies a resource scheduling for LTE-A trafficpertaining to AT 702.

The LTE-A scheduling policy can employ one of a set of resourcereservation patterns for control or RS resources. In one instance, theLTE-A scheduling policy includes an assignment of LTE-A control or RSresources to at least one of: every N subframes of a wireless signal, aseries of different frequency subbands in different signal subframescontaining LTE-A transmissions, a series of different parts of afrequency subband, or a distributed virtual resource block in at leastone of the different signal subframes containing LTE-A transmissions. Itshould be appreciated that a combination of the foregoing resourcereservation patterns can be employed as well.

In one aspect of the subject disclosure, parsing module 716 obtains thescheduling message in a unicast message sent by base station 704 to AT702. In another aspect, the scheduling message is sent on a SIB orcontrol channel dedicated for LTE-A traffic, or optionally thescheduling message can be sent on at least one resource employed for LTEtraffic. In an alternative aspect, AT 702 is pre-loaded with the LTE-Ascheduling policy, and parsing module 716 obtains the LTE-A schedulingpolicy from a preconfigured memory setting (714). In yet another aspect,parsing module 716 further obtains periodic or triggered updates to theLTE-A scheduling policy. The updates can be based on current networkload, or prevailing wireless conditions. Further, data processor 712updates the LTE-A scheduling policy to coordinate resource schedulingbetween AT 702 and base station 704, and to take advantage of resourceoptimizations generated for the current network load and prevailingwireless conditions.

Further to the above, AT 702 can comprise a sampling module 720 thatestimates wireless conditions at the wireless receiver 708. Based onthis estimation, sampling module 720 submits a wireless conditionestimate to base station 704 to facilitate dynamic and adaptive LTE-Ascheduling. The submission can also be employed to trigger an updatedresource reservation pattern, depending on wireless conditions specifiedin the estimate, for instance.

In at least one further aspect, AT 702 can comprise a compensationmodule 722. Compensation module 722 can be configured to identifyresource assignment conflicts resulting from a multi-access technologyimplementation employed by base station 704. Where such conflicts areidentified, compensation module can attempt to alleviate performanceloss that might result there from. As one illustrative example,compensation module 722 identifies LTE-A control or RS transmissionsthat at least partially interfere with data traffic pertaining to AT702. This interference can be identified by cross-referencing the LTE-Ascheduling with the LTE scheduling policy. Additionally, compensationmodule 722 adjusts signal decoding to alleviate performance loss basedon this partial interference.

The aforementioned systems have been described with respect tointeraction between several components, modules and/or communicationinterfaces. It should be appreciated that such systems andcomponents/modules/interfaces can include those components/modules orsub-modules specified therein, some of the specified components/modulesor sub-modules, and/or additional modules. For example, a system couldinclude AT 702, base station 602, and resource scheduling apparatus 102,or a different combination of these or other modules. Sub-modules couldalso be implemented as modules communicatively coupled to other modulesrather than included within parent modules. Additionally, it should benoted that one or more modules could be combined into a single moduleproviding aggregate functionality. For instance, signal parsing module108 can include selection module 110, or vice versa, to facilitatedetermining a baseline access technology scheduling and establishing anadvanced access technology scheduling by way of a single component. Thecomponents can also interact with one or more other components notspecifically described herein but known by those of skill in the art.

Furthermore, as will be appreciated, various portions of the disclosedsystems above and methods below may include or consist of artificialintelligence or knowledge or rule based components, sub-components,processes, means, methodologies, or mechanisms (e.g., support vectormachines, neural networks, expert systems, Bayesian belief networks,fuzzy logic, data fusion engines, classifiers . . . ). Such components,inter alia, and in addition to that already described herein, canautomate certain mechanisms or processes performed thereby to makeportions of the systems and methods more adaptive as well as efficientand intelligent.

In view of the exemplary systems described supra, methodologies that maybe implemented in accordance with the disclosed subject matter will bebetter appreciated with reference to the flow charts of FIGS. 8-10.While for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the methodologies areshown and described as a series of blocks, it is to be understood andappreciated that the claimed subject matter is not limited by the orderof the blocks, as some blocks may occur in different orders and/orconcurrently with other blocks from what is depicted and describedherein. Moreover, not all illustrated blocks may be required toimplement the methodologies described hereinafter. Additionally, itshould be further appreciated that the methodologies disclosedhereinafter and throughout this specification are capable of beingstored on an article of manufacture to facilitate transporting andtransferring such methodologies to computers. The term article ofmanufacture, as used, is intended to encompass a computer programaccessible from any computer-readable device, device in conjunction witha carrier, or storage medium.

FIG. 8 depicts a flowchart of an example methodology for providingmultiple access technologies at a common wireless access network. At802, method 800 can employ a data interface to obtain a wirelessresource schedule for wireless resources of a wireless network. The datainterface can be any suitable wired or wireless communication interface.The wireless resources correspond to the sum total of wirelesscommunication resources usable by the wireless network. These resourcescan include time-frequency resources in an OFDM network, code andspreading factor resources in a code division multiple access (CDMA)network, time slots and subslots of a time division duplex (TDD)network, and so forth. The wireless resource schedule corresponds to anexisting allocation of the wireless network's resources. For instance,the wireless resource schedule can be for a baseline (or existing)wireless access technology, such as LTE release 8.

At 804, method 800 can comprise employing the data processor to analyzethe wireless resource scheduling and identify wireless signal resourcesemployed by a baseline wireless access technology. Additionally, at 806,method 800 can comprise employing the data processor to reserve a subsetof the wireless resources of the wireless network for control orreference signals (RSs) of a second wireless access technology (e.g. anadvanced LTE technology, or post-release 8 version of LTE). In oneaspect, reserving the resources can further comprise reserving allwireless signal resources of the wireless network for the secondwireless access technology for a selected duration (e.g. one subframe)or a selected periodic duration (e.g., selected odd or even numberedsubframes—as depicted at FIG. 3, supra). In this aspect, method 800 canemploy remaining wireless signal resources (e.g., outside the wirelesssignal subframe or on alternative even or odd numbered subframes, etc.)to serve the baseline wireless access technology.

Further to the above, employing the data processor to reserve the subsetof the wireless resources can further comprise employing at least one ofthe following for the reserved wireless resources: a subset of PHICHresource groups employed by a wireless network, a subset of CCEsemployed by the wireless network, a subset of control segment REsemployed by the wireless network, a subset of PDSCH resources employedby the wireless network, or a subset of MBSFN resources employed by thewireless network (e.g., scheduling the subset of MBSFN resources tonon-control symbols of MBSFN subframes). In at least one alternativeaspect, employing the data processor to reserve the subset of thewireless resources can further comprise employing a downlink part or aGP field of special TDD subframes for the reserved subset of thewireless resources. In this aspect, method 800 can further comprisesetting the GP field of TDD subframes employed by access terminalsconfigured for the baseline access technology to a larger value thanthat for the second wireless access technology and advertising adifferent number of GP symbols for the baseline wireless accesstechnology and for access terminals of the second wireless accesstechnology. Reserving the subset of the wireless resources can thencomprise reserving GP field symbols ignored by these access terminalsfor the second wireless access technology, for example, by employingextra GP field symbols set for the baseline access technology for thesubset of the wireless resources.

In regard to reserving the subset of PHICH resource groups, method 800can further comprise mitigating performance loss to ATs configured forthe baseline wireless access technology. Performance loss can bemitigated by one of: establishing separate PHICH resource groups for theATs configured for the baseline wireless access technology and ATsconfigured for a second wireless access technology, or scheduling theATs configured for the baseline access technology to uplink resourcesthat are mapped to PHICH groups other than the subset of reserved PHICHresource groups. Said differently, the ATs configured for the baselinewireless access technology are scheduled to uplink resources havingcorresponding PHICH groups that do not conflict with PHICH groupsreserved for the second wireless access technology. This can help toalleviate collisions on PHICH groups, mitigating performance lossresulting from those collisions.

With regard to reserving the subset of CCEs, method 800 can furthercomprise separating the subset of CCEs employed for the reserved subsetof wireless resources from CCEs employed for PDCCH signals of thebaseline wireless access technology. This can also alleviate performancemitigation resulting from denying use of the subset of CCEs to the ATsconfigured for the baseline wireless access technology. As analternative, method 800 can comprise employing one or more REs reservedfor PDCCH in a control segment for the subset of the wireless resources.In this latter aspect, mitigating performance loss of access terminalsconfigured for the baseline wireless access technology can comprise atleast one of: modifying PDCCH signal power for these access terminals ormodifying a number of REs assigned for transmission of PDCCH for theseterminals

With regard to reserving the subset of PDSCH resources, method 800 canfurther comprise mitigating performance loss to the ATs configured forthe baseline access technology. For instance, if the subset of PDSCHresources are employed for the reserved subset of wireless resources ofthe wireless network, resource conflicts can occur on the PDSCH,reducing performance. Mitigating the performance loss can comprise atleast one of: increasing signal power, or modifying rate control ofaccess terminals configured for the baseline access technology, making ascheduling decision for at least one access terminal configured for thebaseline access technology based on expected performance loss for the atleast one access terminal, or modifying a duty cycle of the subset ofPDSCH resources employed for the subset of the wireless resources.

In addition to the foregoing, at 808, method 800 can comprise employinga wireless transmitter to send a resource scheduling for the control orreference signals of the second wireless access technology over a subsetof the additional wireless signal resources not employed by accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology. In oneexample, sending the resource scheduling is further comprisingestablishing a SIB for the subset of the additional wireless signalresources and transmitting the resource scheduling in the SIB. Inanother example, sending the resource scheduling is further comprisingat least one of reserving a common channel of the wireless network forthe second wireless access technology and scheduling the subset of theadditional wireless signal resources on the common channel, ortransmitting the resource scheduling over at least one resource employedby the baseline wireless access technology. In at least one otherexample, sending the resource scheduling is further comprising reservingthe subset of the wireless resources in a different wireless signalsubframe from the wireless signal resources.

FIG. 9 illustrates a flowchart of a sample methodology 900 for enablingmultiple wireless access technologies for a common radio access network.At 902, method 900 can comprise obtaining a wireless resource schedulefor a baseline wireless access technology. At 904, method 900 identifiesresources employed by the baseline access technology from the wirelessresource schedule. Additionally, at 906, method 900 can obtainprevailing wireless conditions or network loading data for the radioaccess network. At 908, method 900 can access a resource schedulingpolicy. Utilizing the resource scheduling policy and prevailing wirelessconditions or network loading data, at 910, method 900 can reserve asubset of wireless resources of a wireless network for a second wirelessaccess technology, as described herein.

According to one aspect, reserving the subset of wireless resources canfurther comprise dynamically adapting scheduling patterns for reservingthe subset of wireless resources. These dynamically adapting schedulingpatterns can be based on number of access terminals configured for thesecond wireless access technology, in one aspect. In another aspect, thescheduling patterns can be based on an amount of control informationrequired to be transmitted to these access terminals. In yet anotheraspect, the scheduling patterns can be based on particular controlresources to be used for transmission of control information.

In further aspects, method 900 can also comprise employing schedulingpatterns to reserve resources for the second wireless access technology.For instance, at least one of the following scheduling patterns can beemployed: scheduling the subset of wireless resources every N subframes,cycling through different parts of a frequency band on subframesemployed for the second wireless access technology, cycling throughdifferent subbands over different subframes, or employing distributedvirtual resource block mapping in a subframe employed for the secondwireless access technology.

At 912, method 900 can determine whether a resource conflict exists,which can result in performance loss for one or more sets of ATs. If theresource conflict exists, method 900 can proceed to 914; otherwisemethod 900 proceeds to 918.

At 914, method 900 can identify a suitable mediation operation formitigating performance loss due to the resource conflict. At 916, method900 can implement the identified procedure. As one example, a suitablemediation procedure can comprise modifying signal power, scheduling orrate control of ATs configured for the baseline wireless accesstechnology, or modifying a duty cycle of resources employed for thesecond wireless access technology. Other mediation procedure examples(e.g., described at method 800, supra) for various resource types orscheduling patterns can be employed, separately or in suitablecombination.

At 918, method 900 can generate a transmission message for the resourcesselected at reference number 910. Additionally, at 920, method 900 cansend the transmission message to ATs configured for the second wirelessaccess technology. The message can be broadcast over a dedicated channelor SIB, or can be unicast to one or a group of such ATs.

FIG. 10 illustrates a flowchart of an example methodology 1000 forparticipating in a multi-access technology wireless network. At 1002,method 1000 can comprise employing a wireless receiver to receive aresource scheduling policy directed toward a first wireless accesstechnology. Additionally, at 1004, method 1000 can comprise obtaining asupplemental resource scheduling policy directed toward a secondwireless access technology. In some aspects, obtaining the supplementalresource scheduling policy further comprises obtaining a unicast messagespecifying the scheduling policy, or receiving the policy on a SIB orcontrol channel dedicated for the second wireless access technology. Inother aspects, obtaining the supplemental resource scheduling policyfurther comprises obtaining the supplemental resource scheduling policyfrom a preconfigured setting stored in memory, instead.

At 1006, method 1000 can comprise employing a data processor to analyzethe supplemental resource scheduling policy and decode control or RStransmission for the second wireless access technology as specified bythe supplemental resource scheduling. In at least one aspect, thissupplemental scheduling policy can enable decoding of data transmissionsas well as control or RS transmissions, at least in part based onresources specified by the supplemental resource scheduling.

At 1008, method 1000 can comprise generating an estimate of wirelessconditions measured at the wireless receiver, and submitting theestimate to a serving base station to trigger an update to thesupplemental resource scheduling policy. In at least one particularaspect, at 1010, method 1000 can comprise obtaining periodic ortriggered updates (e.g. as a result of multiple estimate submissions) tothe supplemental resource scheduling policy, and updating control or RStransmission decoding for the second wireless access technologyaccordingly. This latter aspect facilitates dynamic and adaptiveresource provisioning, optionally based on submitted wirelessconditions. At 1012, method 1000 can optionally further compriseidentifying control or RS assignments that at least partially interferewith data traffic scheduling. Further, method 1000 can compriseadjusting signal decoding to alleviate performance loss due to theinterference.

FIGS. 11 and 12 illustrate block diagrams of example systems 1100, 1200for providing and facilitating, respectively, multiple wireless accesstechnologies. For example, systems 1100 and 1200 can reside at leastpartially within a wireless communication network and/or within atransmitter such as a node, base station, access point, user terminal,personal computer coupled with a mobile interface card, or the like. Itis to be appreciated that systems 1100 and 1200 are represented asincluding functional blocks, which can be functional blocks thatrepresent functions implemented by a processor, software, or combinationthereof (e.g., firmware).

System 1100 can comprise a module 1102 for employing a data interface toobtain a wireless resource schedule. The module 1102 can comprisesoftware or hardware controls or drivers for the data interface, whichcan include any suitable wired or wireless communication interface.Additionally, system 1100 can comprise a module 1104 for employing adata processor to identify wireless signal resources employed by abaseline wireless access technology from the wireless resource schedule.In at least one aspect, system 1100 can comprise a module 1106 foremploying the data processor to reserve a subset of wireless signalresources of a wireless network for control or RSs of a second wirelessaccess technology. The subset of wireless resources can be selected froma particular type(s) of resources in some aspects (e.g., PHICHresources, a subset of CCEs, a subset of control segment REs, a subsetof PDCCH resources, a subset of PDSCH resources, a subset of MBSFNsubframes, special TDD resources, and so on). Moreover, the wirelessresources can be reserved according to a particular resource pattern(e.g., every N^(th) subframe, cycling through different subbands orsubframes, according to a distributed virtual resource block mapping,etc.).

Further to the above, system 1100 can comprise a module 1108 foremploying a wireless transmitter to send a resource scheduling for thecontrol or RSs of the second wireless access technology over a subset ofthe subset of the wireless signal resources. Particularly, the subsetcan include resources not employed by baseline access technology ATs, toavoid conflicts for those ATs.

System 1200 can comprise a module 1202 for employing a wireless receiverto receive a resource scheduling policy directed toward a first wirelessaccess technology. Further, system 1200 can comprise a module 1204 forobtaining a supplemental resource scheduling policy directed toward asecond wireless access technology. In addition to the foregoing, system1200 can comprise a module 1206 for employing a data processor toanalyze the supplemental resource scheduling policy and decode controlor RS transmissions for the second wireless access technology asspecified by the supplemental resource scheduling.

FIG. 13 depicts a block diagram of an example system 1300 that canfacilitate wireless communication according to some aspects disclosedherein. On a downlink, at access point 1305, a transmit (TX) dataprocessor 1310 receives, formats, codes, interleaves, and modulates (orsymbol maps) traffic data and provides modulation symbols (“datasymbols”). A symbol modulator 1313 receives and processes the datasymbols and pilot symbols and provides a stream of symbols. A symbolmodulator 1320 multiplexes data and pilot symbols and provides them to atransmitter unit (TMTR) 1320. Each transmit symbol can be a data symbol,a pilot symbol, or a signal value of zero. The pilot symbols can be sentcontinuously in each symbol period. The pilot symbols can be frequencydivision multiplexed (FDM), orthogonal frequency division multiplexed(OFDM), time division multiplexed (TDM), code division multiplexed(CDM), or a suitable combination thereof or of like modulation and/ortransmission techniques.

TMTR 1320 receives and converts the stream of symbols into one or moreanalog signals and further conditions (e.g., amplifies, filters, andfrequency upconverts) the analog signals to generate a downlink signalsuitable for transmission over the wireless channel. The downlink signalis then transmitted through an antenna 1325 to the terminals. Atterminal 1330, an antenna 1335 receives the downlink signal and providesa received signal to a receiver unit (RCVR) 1340. Receiver unit 1340conditions (e.g., filters, amplifies, and frequency downconverts) thereceived signal and digitizes the conditioned signal to obtain samples.A symbol demodulator 1345 demodulates and provides received pilotsymbols to a processor 1350 for channel estimation. Symbol demodulator1345 further receives a frequency response estimate for the downlinkfrom processor 1350, performs data demodulation on the received datasymbols to obtain data symbol estimates (which are estimates of thetransmitted data symbols), and provides the data symbol estimates to anRX data processor 1355, which demodulates (i.e., symbol demaps),deinterleaves, and decodes the data symbol estimates to recover thetransmitted traffic data. The processing by symbol demodulator 1345 andRX data processor 1355 is complementary to the processing by symbolmodulator 1313 and TX data processor 1310, respectively, at access point1305.

On the uplink, a TX data processor 1360 processes traffic data andprovides data symbols. A symbol modulator 1365 receives and multiplexesthe data symbols with pilot symbols, performs modulation, and provides astream of symbols. A transmitter unit 1370 then receives and processesthe stream of symbols to generate an uplink signal, which is transmittedby the antenna 1335 to the access point 1305. Specifically, the uplinksignal can be in accordance with SC-FDMA requirements and can includefrequency hopping mechanisms as described herein.

At access point 1305, the uplink signal from terminal 1330 is receivedby the antenna 1325 and processed by a receiver unit 1375 to obtainsamples. A symbol demodulator 1380 then processes the samples andprovides received pilot symbols and data symbol estimates for theuplink. An RX data processor 1385 processes the data symbol estimates torecover the traffic data transmitted by terminal 1330. A processor 1390performs channel estimation for each active terminal transmitting on theuplink. Multiple terminals can transmit pilot concurrently on the uplinkon their respective assigned sets of pilot sub-bands, where the pilotsub-band sets can be interlaced.

Processors 1390 and 1350 direct (e.g., control, coordinate, manage,etc.) operation at access point 1305 and terminal 1330, respectively.Respective processors 1390 and 1350 can be associated with memory units(not shown) that store program codes and data. Processors 1390 and 1350can also perform computations to derive frequency and impulse responseestimates for the uplink and downlink, respectively.

For a multiple-access system (e.g., SC-FDMA, FDMA, OFDMA, CDMA, TDMA,etc.), multiple terminals can transmit concurrently on the uplink. Forsuch a system, the pilot sub-bands can be shared among differentterminals. The channel estimation techniques can be used in cases wherethe pilot sub-bands for each terminal span the entire operating band(possibly except for the band edges). Such a pilot sub-band structurewould be desirable to obtain frequency diversity for each terminal. Thetechniques described herein can be implemented by various means. Forexample, these techniques can be implemented in hardware, software, or acombination thereof. For a hardware implementation, which can bedigital, analog, or both digital and analog, the processing units usedfor channel estimation can be implemented within one or more applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs),digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices(PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers,micro-controllers, microprocessors, other electronic units designed toperform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof. Withsoftware, implementation can be through modules (e.g., procedures,functions, and so on) that perform the functions described herein. Thesoftware codes can be stored in memory unit and executed by theprocessors 1390 and 1350.

FIG. 14 illustrates a wireless communication system 1400 with multiplebase stations (BSs) 1410 (e.g., wireless access points, wirelesscommunication apparatus) and multiple terminals 1420 (e.g. ATs), such ascan be utilized in conjunction with one or more aspects. A BS (1410) isgenerally a fixed station that communicates with the terminals and canalso be called an access point, a Node B, or some other terminology.Each BS 1410 provides communication coverage for a particular geographicarea or coverage area, illustrated as three geographic areas in FIG. 14,labeled 1402 a, 1402 b, and 1402 c. The term “cell” can refer to a BS orits coverage area depending on the context in which the term is used. Toimprove system capacity, a BS geographic area/coverage area can bepartitioned into multiple smaller areas (e.g. three smaller areas,according to cell 1402 a in FIG. 14), 1404 a, 1404 b, and 1404 c. Eachsmaller area (1404 a, 1404 b, 1404 c) can be served by a respective basetransceiver subsystem (BTS). The term “sector” can refer to a BTS or itscoverage area depending on the context in which the term is used. For asectorized cell, the BTSs for all sectors of that cell are typicallyco-located within the base station for the cell. The transmissiontechniques described herein can be used for a system with sectorizedcells as well as a system with un-sectorized cells. For simplicity, inthe subject description, unless specified otherwise, the term “basestation” is used generically for a fixed station that serves a sector aswell as a fixed station that serves a cell.

Terminals 1420 are typically dispersed throughout the system, and eachterminal 1420 can be fixed or mobile. Terminals 1420 can also be calleda mobile station, user equipment, a user device, wireless communicationapparatus, an access terminal, a user terminal or some otherterminology. A terminal 1420 can be a wireless device, a cellular phone,a personal digital assistant (PDA), a wireless modem card, and so on.Each terminal 1420 can communicate with zero, one, or multiple BSs 1410on the downlink (e.g. FL) and uplink (e.g. RL) at any given moment. Thedownlink refers to the communication link from the base stations to theterminals, and the uplink refers to the communication link from theterminals to the base stations.

For a centralized architecture, a system controller 1430 couples to basestations 1410 and provides coordination and control for BSs 1410. For adistributed architecture, BSs 1410 can communicate with one another asneeded (e.g., by way of a wired or wireless backhaul networkcommunicatively coupling the BSs 1410). Data transmission on the forwardlink often occurs from one access point to one access terminal at ornear the maximum data rate that can be supported by the forward link orthe communication system. Additional channels of the forward link (e.g.control channel) can be transmitted from multiple access points to oneaccess terminal. Reverse link data communication can occur from oneaccess terminal to one or more access points.

FIG. 15 is an illustration of a planned or semi-planned wirelesscommunication environment 1500, in accordance with various aspects.System 1500 can comprise one or more BSs 1502 in one or more cellsand/or sectors that receive, transmit, repeat, etc., wirelesscommunication signals to each other and/or to one or more mobile devices1504. As illustrated, each BS 1502 can provide communication coveragefor a particular geographic area, illustrated as four geographic areas,labeled 1506 a, 1506 b, 1506 c and 1506 d. Each BS 1502 can comprise atransmitter chain and a receiver chain, each of which can in turncomprise a plurality of components associated with signal transmissionand reception (e.g., processors, modulators, multiplexers, demodulators,demultiplexers, antennas, and so forth, see FIG. 7, supra), as will beappreciated by one skilled in the art. Mobile devices 1504 can be, forexample, cellular phones, smart phones, laptops, handheld communicationdevices, handheld computing devices, satellite radios, globalpositioning systems, PDAs, or any other suitable device forcommunicating over wireless communication environment 1500. System 1500can be employed in conjunction with various aspects described herein inorder to facilitate improved resource management in wirelesscommunications, as set forth herein.

As used in the subject disclosure, the terms “component,” “system,”“module” and the like are intended to refer to a computer-relatedentity, either hardware, software, software in execution, firmware,middle ware, microcode, and/or any combination thereof. For example, amodule can be, but is not limited to being, a process running on aprocessor, a processor, an object, an executable, a thread of execution,a program, a device, and/or a computer. One or more modules can residewithin a process, or thread of execution; and a module can be localizedon one electronic device, or distributed between two or more electronicdevices. Further, these modules can execute from variouscomputer-readable media having various data structures stored thereon.The modules can communicate by way of local or remote processes such asin accordance with a signal having one or more data packets (e.g., datafrom one component interacting with another component in a local system,distributed system, or across a network such as the Internet with othersystems by way of the signal). Additionally, components or modules ofsystems described herein can be rearranged, or complemented byadditional components/modules/systems in order to facilitate achievingthe various aspects, goals, advantages, etc., described with regardthereto, and are not limited to the precise configurations set forth ina given figure, as will be appreciated by one skilled in the art.

Furthermore, various aspects are described herein in connection with auser equipment (UE). A UE can also be called a system, a subscriberunit, a subscriber station, mobile station, mobile, mobile communicationdevice, mobile device, remote station, remote terminal, access terminal(AT), user agent (UA), a user device, or user terminal (UE). Asubscriber station can be a cellular telephone, a cordless telephone, aSession Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL)station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device havingwireless connection capability, or other processing device connected toa wireless modem or similar mechanism facilitating wirelesscommunication with a processing device.

In one or more exemplary embodiments, the functions described can beimplemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, orany suitable combination thereof. If implemented in software, thefunctions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or moreinstructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readablemedia includes both computer storage media and communication mediaincluding any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer programfrom one place to another. A storage media may be any physical mediathat can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and notlimitation, such computer storage media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM,CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g.,card, stick, key drive . . . ), or any other medium that can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or datastructures and that can be accessed by a computer. For example, if thesoftware is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote sourceusing a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digitalsubscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio,and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair,DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave areincluded in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein,includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatiledisc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproducedata magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers.Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope ofcomputer-readable media.

For a hardware implementation, the processing units' variousillustrative logics, logical blocks, modules, and circuits described inconnection with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented orperformed within one or more ASICs, DSPs, DSPDs, PLDs, FPGAs, discretegate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, general purposeprocessors, controllers, micro-controllers, microprocessors, otherelectronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, ora combination thereof. A general-purpose processor can be amicroprocessor, but, in the alternative, the processor can be anyconventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. Aprocessor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices,e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality ofmicroprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSPcore, or any other suitable configuration. Additionally, at least oneprocessor can comprise one or more modules operable to perform one ormore of the steps and/or actions described herein.

Moreover, various aspects or features described herein can beimplemented as a method, apparatus, or article of manufacture usingstandard programming and/or engineering techniques. Further, the stepsand/or actions of a method or algorithm described in connection with theaspects disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in asoftware module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two.Additionally, in some aspects, the steps or actions of a method oralgorithm can reside as at least one or any combination or set of codesor instructions on a machine-readable medium, or computer-readablemedium, which can be incorporated into a computer program product. Theterm “article of manufacture” as used herein is intended to encompass acomputer program accessible from any suitable computer-readable deviceor media.

Additionally, the word “exemplary” is used herein to mean serving as anexample, instance, or illustration. Any aspect or design describedherein as “exemplary” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred oradvantageous over other aspects or designs. Rather, use of the wordexemplary is intended to present concepts in a concrete fashion. As usedin this application, the term “or” is intended to mean an inclusive “or”rather than an exclusive “or”. That is, unless specified otherwise, orclear from context, “X employs A or B” is intended to mean any of thenatural inclusive permutations. That is, if X employs A; X employs B; orX employs both A and B, then “X employs A or B” is satisfied under anyof the foregoing instances. In addition, the articles “a” and “an” asused in this application and the appended claims should generally beconstrued to mean “one or more” unless specified otherwise or clear fromcontext to be directed to a singular form.

What has been described above includes examples of aspects of theclaimed subject matter. It is, of course, not possible to describe everyconceivable combination of components or methodologies for purposes ofdescribing the claimed subject matter, but one of ordinary skill in theart may recognize that many further combinations and permutations of thedisclosed subject matter are possible. Accordingly, the disclosedsubject matter is intended to embrace all such alterations,modifications and variations that fall within the spirit and scope ofthe appended claims. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms“includes,” “has” or “having” are used in either the detaileddescription or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in amanner similar to the term “comprising” as “comprising” is interpretedwhen employed as a transitional word in a claim.

1. A method for aggregating wireless access technologies in a wirelessnetwork, comprising: obtaining a wireless resource schedule for wirelessresources of the wireless network; analyzing the wireless resourceschedule and identify wireless signal resources employed by a baselinewireless access technology; reserving a subset of the wireless resourcesof the wireless network for control or reference signals of a secondwireless access technology; and sending a resource scheduling for thecontrol or reference signals to access terminals configured for thesecond wireless access technology.
 2. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising establishing a system information block (SIB) for the subsetof the wireless resources and transmitting the resource scheduling inthe SIB.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:transmitting the resource scheduling over at least one resource employedby the baseline wireless access technology; or reserving a commonchannel of the wireless network for the second wireless accesstechnology and transmitting the resource scheduling on the commonchannel.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising reserving allwireless signal resources of the wireless network for the secondwireless access technology for a selected duration or a selectedperiodic duration.
 5. The method of claim 1, further comprisingemploying at least one of the following for the subset of the wirelessresources: a subset of physical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)indicator channel (PHICH) resource groups employed by the wirelessnetwork; a subset of control channel elements (CCEs) employed by thewireless network; a subset of control segment resource elements (REs)employed by the wireless network; a subset of physical downlink sharedchannel (PDSCH) resources employed by the wireless network; or a subsetof multicast/broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) resourcesemployed by the wireless network.
 6. The method of claim 5, furthercomprising mapping uplink transmissions of the access terminalsconfigured for the baseline wireless access technology such thatcorresponding PHICH groups for these access terminals do not collidewith the subset of PHICH groups reserved for the second wireless accesstechnology, if the subset of PHICH groups is employed for the subset ofthe wireless resources.
 7. The method of claim 5, further comprisingseparating the subset of CCEs employed for the subset of the wirelessresources from CCEs employed for physical downlink control channel(PDCCH) signals.
 8. The method of claim 5, further comprising employingone or more REs reserved for PDCCH in a control segment for the subsetof the wireless resources.
 9. The method of claim 8, further comprisingmitigating performance loss of access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology if PDCCH transmissions of theseterminals are punctured by at least one of the subset of control segmentREs by at least one of: modifying PDCCH signal power for these accessterminals; modifying a number of REs assigned for transmission of PDCCHfor these terminals; or optimizing a PDCCH to CCE mapping for theseaccess terminals.
 10. The method of claim 5, further comprisingmitigating performance loss to access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology if the subset of PDSCH resources areemployed for the subset of the wireless resources by at least one of:increasing signal power or modifying rate control of the accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology; makinga scheduling decision for at least one access terminal configured forthe baseline wireless access technology based on expected performanceloss for the at least one access terminal; or modifying a duty cycle ofthe subset of PDSCH resources employed for the subset of the wirelessresources.
 11. The method of claim 5, further comprising reservingnon-control symbols of MBSFN subframes for the subset of the wirelessresources.
 12. The method of claim 1, further comprising at least oneof: employing a downlink part of a special time division duplex (TDD)subframe for the subset of the wireless resources; or employing a guardperiod (GP) field of the special TDD subframe for the subset of thewireless resources and advertising a different number of GP symbols foraccess terminals configured for the baseline wireless access technologyand for access terminals configured for the second wireless accesstechnology.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprising setting a GPfield of a special TDD subframe employed by access terminals configuredfor the baseline wireless access technology to a larger value than thatof the access terminals configured for the second wireless accesstechnology, and employing extra GP field symbols set for the baselinewireless access technology for the subset of the wireless resources. 14.The method of claim 1, further comprising employing at least one of thefollowing scheduling patterns for reserving the subset of the wirelessresources: scheduling the subset of the wireless resources every Nsubframes, where N is an integer; cycling through different parts of afrequency band on subframes employed for the second wireless accesstechnology; cycling through different subbands over different subframes;or employing distributed virtual resource block mapping in a subframeemployed for the second wireless access technology.
 15. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising dynamically adapting scheduling patterns forreserving the subset of the wireless resources based on: number ofaccess terminals configured for the second wireless access technology;amount of control information required to be transmitted to these accessterminals; or control resources to be used for transmission of controlinformation.
 16. An apparatus that facilitates wireless communicationfor multiple wireless access technologies, comprising: means forobtaining a wireless resource schedule for wireless resources of awireless network; means for identifying wireless signal resourcesemployed by a baseline wireless access technology from the wirelessresource schedule; means for reserving a subset of the wirelessresources of the wireless network for control or reference signals of asecond wireless access technology; and means for sending a resourcescheduling for the control or reference signals to access terminalsconfigured for the second wireless access technology.
 17. At least oneprocessor configured to facilitate wireless communication for multiplewireless access technologies, comprising: a first module that identifieswireless signal resources of a wireless network employed by a baselinewireless access technology; a second module that reserves a subset ofthe wireless signal resources for control or reference signals of asecond wireless access technology; and a third module that sends aresource scheduling for the control or reference signals to accessterminals configured for the second wireless access technology.
 18. Acomputer program product, comprising a Non-transitory computer-readablemedium, comprising: a first set of codes for causing a computer toidentify wireless signal resources of a wireless network employed by abaseline wireless access technology; a second set of codes for causingthe computer to reserve a subset of the wireless signal resources forcontrol or reference signals of a second wireless access technology; anda third set of codes for causing the computer to send a resourcescheduling for the control or reference signals to access terminalsconfigured for the second wireless access technology.
 19. The apparatusof claim 16, further comprising means for establishing a systeminformation block (SIB) for the subset of the wireless resources andtransmitting the resource scheduling in the SIB.
 20. The apparatus ofclaim 16, further comprising at least one of: means for transmitting theresource scheduling over at least one resource employed by the baselinewireless access technology; or means for reserving a common channel ofthe wireless network for the second wireless access technology andtransmitting the resource scheduling on the common channel.
 21. Theapparatus of claim 16, further comprising means for reserving allwireless signal resources of the wireless network for the secondwireless access technology for a selected duration or a selectedperiodic duration.
 22. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprisingmeans for employing at least one of the following for the subset of thewireless resources: a subset of physical hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) resource groups employed by thewireless network; a subset of control channel elements (CCEs) employedby the wireless network; a subset of control segment resource elements(REs) employed by the wireless network; a subset of physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH) resources employed by the wireless network; or asubset of multicast/broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) resourcesemployed by the wireless network.
 23. The apparatus of claim 22, furthercomprising means for mapping uplink transmissions of the accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology suchthat corresponding PHICH groups for these access terminals do notcollide with the subset of PHICH groups reserved for the second wirelessaccess technology, if the subset of PHICH groups is employed for thesubset of the wireless resources.
 24. The apparatus of claim 22, furthercomprising means for separating the subset of CCEs employed for thesubset of the wireless resources from CCEs employed for physicaldownlink control channel (PDCCH) signals.
 25. The apparatus of claim 22,further comprising means for employing one or more REs reserved forPDCCH in a control segment for the subset of the wireless resources. 26.The apparatus of claim 25, further comprising means for mitigatingperformance loss of access terminals configured for the baselinewireless access technology if PDCCH transmissions of these terminals arepunctured by at least one of the subset of control segment REs by atleast one of: means for modifying PDCCH signal power for these accessterminals; means for modifying a number of REs assigned for transmissionof PDCCH for these terminals; or means for optimizing a PDCCH to CCEmapping for these access terminals.
 27. The apparatus of claim 22,further comprising means for mitigating performance loss to accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology if thesubset of PDSCH resources are employed for the subset of the wirelessresources by at least one of: means for increasing signal power ormodifying rate control of the access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology; means for making a schedulingdecision for at least one access terminal configured for the baselinewireless access technology based on expected performance loss for the atleast one access terminal; or means for modifying a duty cycle of thesubset of PDSCH resources employed for the subset of the wirelessresources.
 28. The apparatus of claim 22, further comprising means forreserving non-control symbols of MBSFN subframes for the subset of thewireless resources.
 29. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprising atleast one of: means for employing a downlink part of a special timedivision duplex (TDD) subframe for the subset of the wireless resources;or means for employing a guard period (GP) field of the special TDDsubframe for the subset of the wireless resources and advertising adifferent number of GP symbols for access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology and for access terminals configuredfor the second wireless access technology.
 30. The apparatus of claim16, further comprising means for setting a GP field of a special TDDsubframe employed by access terminals configured for the baselinewireless access technology to a larger value than that of the accessterminals configured for the second wireless access technology, andemploying extra GP field symbols set for the baseline wireless accesstechnology for the subset of the wireless resources.
 31. The apparatusof claim 16, further comprising means for employing at least one of thefollowing scheduling patterns for reserving the subset of the wirelessresources: means for scheduling the subset of the wireless resourcesevery N subframes, where N is an integer; means for cycling throughdifferent parts of a frequency band on subframes employed for the secondwireless access technology; means for cycling through different subbandsover different subframes; or means for employing distributed virtualresource block mapping in a subframe employed for the second wirelessaccess technology.
 32. The apparatus of claim 16, further comprisingmeans for dynamically adapting scheduling patterns for reserving thesubset of the wireless resources based on: number of access terminalsconfigured for the second wireless access technology; amount of controlinformation required to be transmitted to these access terminals; orcontrol resources to be used for transmission of control information.33. The at least one processor of claim 17, further comprising a fourthmodule that employs at least one of the following for the subset of thewireless resources: a subset of physical hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) indicator channel (PHICH) resource groups employed by thewireless network; a subset of control channel elements (CCEs) employedby the wireless network; a subset of control segment resource elements(REs) employed by the wireless network; a subset of physical downlinkshared channel (PDSCH) resources employed by the wireless network; or asubset of multicast/broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) resourcesemployed by the wireless network.
 34. The at least one processor ofclaim 33, further comprising a fifth module that maps uplinktransmissions of the access terminals configured for the baselinewireless access technology such that corresponding PHICH groups forthese access terminals do not collide with the subset of PHICH groupsreserved for the second wireless access technology, if the subset ofPHICH groups is employed for the subset of the wireless resources. 35.The at least one processor of claim 33, further comprising a fifthmodule that separates the subset of CCEs employed for the subset of thewireless resources from CCEs employed for physical downlink controlchannel (PDCCH) signals.
 36. The at least one processor of claim 33,further comprising a fifth module that employs one or more REs reservedfor PDCCH in a control segment for the subset of the wireless resources.37. The at least one processor of claim 36, further comprising a sixthmodule that mitigates performance loss of access terminals configuredfor the baseline wireless access technology if PDCCH transmissions ofthese terminals are punctured by at least one of the subset of controlsegment REs by at least one of: modifying PDCCH signal power for theseaccess terminals; modifying a number of REs assigned for transmission ofPDCCH for these terminals; or optimizing a PDCCH to CCE mapping forthese access terminals.
 38. The at least one processor of claim 33,further comprising a fifth module that mitigates performance loss toaccess terminals configured for the baseline wireless access technologyif the subset of PDSCH resources are employed for the subset of thewireless resources by at least one of: increasing signal power ormodifying rate control of the access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology; making a scheduling decision for atleast one access terminal configured for the baseline wireless accesstechnology based on expected performance loss for the at least oneaccess terminal; or modifying a duty cycle of the subset of PDSCHresources employed for the subset of the wireless resources.
 39. The atleast one processor of claim 33, further comprising a fifth module thatreserves non-control symbols of MBSFN subframes for the subset of thewireless resources.
 40. The at least one processor of claim 17, furthercomprising a fourth module that employs at least one of the followingscheduling patterns for reserving the subset of the wireless resources:scheduling the subset of the wireless resources every N subframes, whereN is an integer; cycling through different parts of a frequency band onsubframes employed for the second wireless access technology; cyclingthrough different subbands over different subframes; or employingdistributed virtual resource block mapping in a subframe employed forthe second wireless access technology.
 41. The computer program productof claim 18, wherein the computer readable medium further comprises afourth set of codes for causing the computer to employ at least one ofthe following for the subset of the wireless resources: a subset ofphysical hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) indicator channel(PHICH) resource groups employed by the wireless network; a subset ofcontrol channel elements (CCEs) employed by the wireless network; asubset of control segment resource elements (REs) employed by thewireless network; a subset of physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH)resources employed by the wireless network; or a subset ofmulticast/broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) resources employedby the wireless network.
 42. The computer program product of claim 41,wherein the computer readable medium further comprises a fourth set ofcodes for causing the computer to map uplink transmissions of the accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology suchthat corresponding PHICH groups for these access terminals do notcollide with the subset of PHICH groups reserved for the second wirelessaccess technology, if the subset of PHICH groups is employed for thesubset of the wireless resources.
 43. The computer program product ofclaim 41, wherein the computer readable medium further comprises afourth set of codes for causing the computer to separate the subset ofCCEs employed for the subset of the wireless resources from CCEsemployed for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) signals.
 44. Thecomputer program product of claim 41, wherein the computer readablemedium further comprises a fourth set of codes for causing the computerto employ one or more REs reserved for PDCCH in a control segment forthe subset of the wireless resources.
 45. The computer program productof claim 44, wherein the computer readable medium further comprises afifth set of codes for causing the computer to mitigate performance lossof access terminals configured for the baseline wireless accesstechnology if PDCCH transmissions of these terminals are punctured by atleast one of the subset of control segment REs by at least one of:modifying PDCCH signal power for these access terminals; modifying anumber of REs assigned for transmission of PDCCH for these terminals; oroptimizing a PDCCH to CCE mapping for these access terminals.
 46. Thecomputer program product of claim 41, wherein the computer readablemedium further comprises a fourth set of codes for causing the computerto mitigate performance loss to access terminals configured for thebaseline wireless access technology if the subset of PDSCH resources areemployed for the subset of the wireless resources by at least one of:increasing signal power or modifying rate control of the accessterminals configured for the baseline wireless access technology; makinga scheduling decision for at least one access terminal configured forthe baseline wireless access technology based on expected performanceloss for the at least one access terminal; or modifying a duty cycle ofthe subset of PDSCH resources employed for the subset of the wirelessresources.
 47. The computer program product of claim 41, wherein thecomputer readable medium further comprises a fourth set of codes forcausing the computer to reserve non-control symbols of MBSFN subframesfor the subset of the wireless resources.
 48. The computer programproduct of claim 17, wherein the computer readable medium furthercomprises a fourth set of codes for causing the computer to employ atleast one of the following scheduling patterns for reserving the subsetof the wireless resources: scheduling the subset of the wirelessresources every N subframes, where N is an integer; cycling throughdifferent parts of a frequency band on subframes employed for the secondwireless access technology; cycling through different subbands overdifferent subframes; or employing distributed virtual resource blockmapping in a subframe employed for the second wireless accesstechnology.